Continuing with TRU-VUE’s coverage of the 1941 Ringling-Barnum Circus, filmstrip No. 2 was devoted almost entirely to photos taken inside of the menagerie. 1941 was the year that theatrical designer Norman Bel Geddes spruced up the cage wagons by having their insides painted to resemble jungle scenery so that the animals would look like they were emerging from their native habitat. |
Thursday, May 20, 2010
1941 RBBB (Set 2) #1 From Eric Beheim
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3 comments:
It's a deer of some type but not a fallow deer. Fallow deer have palmated antlers like a moose.
Interesting they could exhibit horned and antlered animals in relatively small enclosures with barred front without problems. Seems like broken horns and antlers would not be unusual.
This is certainly a deer as Jim Alexander points out - -not an antelope. It may well be a male fallow deer although the typical palmated antlers are not present. Or if they are, they are spread out behind the tynes shown in the photo.
I have seen photos of fallow deer antlers that are not palmated or only slightly so. Arguing for the identification as a fallow deer is the color. Pure white. That is common in many fallow deer which enjoy a wide color variation over its extensive range in Eurasia. Also we see the penile tuft which is typical of the males of the species, though other males of deer species have it as well.
A comprehensive paper on the 1941-42 Bel Geddes designed menagerie is needed. It was dramatic and frankly breathtaking.
They even removed the ceilings of some of the cage wagons and fixed them so they could be inclined upwards. Some of the cage wagons could not be so modified because it would have compromised their structural integrity. The cages were illuminated by fluorescent lights in the ceilings.
The information about the individual animals in the 1941 menagerie, attributed to Joe Bradbury, is from the notes I provided him. Joe was one of my best friends, and I worked closely with him on his series about the post-1937 RBBB show.
In April 1970 I had the good fortune to be granted permission by controller Chuck Smith to examine a lot of old RBBB files in its Washington offices. There was an extensive one about RBBB’s dealings with Frank Buck.
I have a lot of information about the animals shown in this series of photos and will try to comment on them.
Mr. Reynolds has deftly omitted the part that while he was rummaging around the Washington Sanctorum he was suddenly confronted by Israel Feld who inquired, "Who the Hell are you? and "What are you doing down here?"
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